People are so dang cool sometimes, I swear. Like the fact that I did not know Thomcord grapes were a thing until they showed up on Misfits Market looking suspiciously like they were cosplaying as Concords, except seedless and sweeter from what the internet told me. I was so excited, as a super grape-flavor concord fan. Turns out they’re a hybrid — Thompson seedless crossed with Concord — and they’re only around for a few weeks in early fall. So naturally, as I like to do with trying new varieties of things I already enjoy, I bought wayyyy too many and had to figure out what to do with the excess before they turned into raisins.
Enter the winemaker’s cake. Aka the Grape Harvest Cake! This is an old Italian-American style dessert traditionally made during grape harvest season with whatever wine grapes didn’t make it into the vats. These leftover grape cakes are spiced, buttery, studded with fruit that bursts and jams itself into the crumb as it bakes. It’s not trying to be delicate. It’s a little rustic, a little dense in the best way, and some of the grapes get almost candied. Ten out of ten grape-to-cake ratio. I knew it was the perfect fit for my excess.
A few things worth knowing before you start. The wine in here is doing subtle work, you’re not going to taste “wine,” you’re going to taste a slightly deeper, more grown-up version of a spice cake. If you don’t have any open or just don’t want to deal with wine in general, a standard grape juice does the job fine. Especially since most grape juices are made of concord grapes, the cousin of a thomcord! Also, and I do want to make sure this is really understood: toss your grapes in flour before folding them in. If you skip this step to try to make your life easier, you will undoubtedly make your life harder as they’ll all sink to the bottom, which isn’t the end of the world, but it does mean you baked a grape pudding cake instead, and that’s a different recipe. And texturally isn’t as good imo.
The batter comes together fast like nothing fancy, just cream your butter and sugar, alternate your dry and wet ingredients, fold in the grapes like you mean it but not too aggressively (you don’t want to bruise the whole batch). Let it bake low and slow enough that the center sets without the grapes on top burning, and then with all your might resist cutting into it warm, even though you will want to. It firms up as it cools and slices sooo much cleaner if you wait!
Dust it with powdered sugar on the cooled cake right before serving, and enjoy the heck out of this cake. I can proudly say that we did, and it’s already on the plan to make once again before the hot temps of early fall leave for good.
Grape Harvest Winemaker’s Cake
Equipment
- 9-inch springform pan
- Parchment paper
- Medium mixing bowl (for dry ingredients)
- Large mixing bowl or stand mixer (for batter)
- Hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Rubber spatula
- Wire cooling rack
- Toothpick (for doneness test)
- Fine mesh sieve (for dusting powdered sugar)
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 250g
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened 170g
- 1 cup granulated sugar, divided 200g
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk 120ml
- ¼ cup dry red wine (or substitute grape juice) 60ml
- 2 ½ cups Thomcord grapes, halved, divided about 12oz
- 1 tbsp flour for tossing grapes
- Powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
- Cream butter with ¾ cup sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, then vanilla.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk/wine mixture to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until combined.
- Toss 2 cups of the halved grapes with 1 tbsp flour, then fold gently into the batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter remaining ½ cup grapes over the surface, cut side up, and sprinkle with remaining 2 tbsp sugar.
- Bake 50–55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden.
- Cool in the pan 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and release the springform. Cool completely on a wire rack before dusting with powdered sugar.